While the Internet and the World Wide Web have provided the means to share information, there is not a means to task users for specific time-sensitive and location-based data. User Group/Bulletin Board type websites provide the capability for users to post specific domain information (e.g. birding sites allows users to post bird sightings) and receive email notices of postings. Using the birding domain, bulletin board type web sites accept free form reports (sometimes via email) without specific times, location, and species of bird sightings. A birder, who may only be interested in the sightings of one particular species (e.g. Green Heron) in a particular location near his or her home, is required to read through all the postings, of which none may provide actionable intelligence . . . that is, the necessary information for the birder to locate and spot the desired bird species.
Many existing alert systems require “person in the loop” filtering before dispatched reports are issued to subscribers. These basic systems require a person to screen through emails, text messages, Facebook postings, etc., before an official alert is posted. Although the “person in the loop” adds effective quality control and validation of the information, the manual intervention greatly delays the delivery of the information to consumers.
Traffic-based alerting systems have the ability to provide users time-sensitive and location-based reports, but they rely heavily on sensor networks and are not reliable for collecting information that can more easily be gathered via first hand eye witness means (i.e. a worldwide sensor network for spotting and tracking birds cannot easily be built).
Web-based auction systems, like eBay, have provided a powerful means for connecting sellers of merchandise with a world-wide buying community. Similar to an online auction system, a need exists to connect subscribers (i.e. buyers and consumers) of time-sensitive location-based information to a worldwide community of “eye witness” information reporters (i.e. sellers). Most people are completely unaware of the value of their daily personal observations. The information becomes even more valuable when it can be delivered to a buyer in a timely, orderly, and coherent fashion. In addition to the small tidbits of information desired by individual consumers, aggregated information is deemed highly valuable to others including government organizations, NGOs, academia, and commercial entities. Structured data maintained in a relational database system creates value to these organizations in its ability to be trended and sifted for shifts and patterns. Example research includes fisheries management, wildlife management, storm tracking, data supporting global warming research, etc.